Color, Scent, Magic: Spices in Soap

One of the many joys of making cold process soap, are the various spices you can use to infuse gorgeous color and add a variety of texture to your soaps. You can use different dried herbs and spices to impart different qualities to the soap with beautiful results that are their own form of art.

Today the soap making process is accessible to most households and it requires a little bit of creativity, safety, and is a fun learning experience. With so many spices and essential oils readily available it's easy to make your own sensory experience in your own kitchen. 

Why Spices Work So Well in Cold Process Soap

Spices work particularly well in soap making, and have been used for centuries and natural colorants and for their mild skin conditioning properties. Essential oils on the other hand carry on the historical tradition of natural fragrance used long before synthetic fragrance oils existed.

A Guide to Popular Spices and What They Do

How to Incorporate Spices

Depending on the spice and the desired effect, these compounds can be incorporated in various different ways. The most common method is dispersing the spices into a small amount of olive oil before adding them to soap batter. Some spices such as turmeric and annatto can be infused directly into the carrier oil, either through slow cold infusion or gentle heat. Botanicals such as lavender buds and coffee grounds that are meant to provide texture and exfoliation are typically stirred in at trace (trace is when the mixture is fully emulsified, stable, and no longer separates.) It's important to keep in mind certain spices, particularly cinnamon and clove can be skin irritants at higher usage rates so a word of caution is advised. Turmeric is one of the more forgiving and rewarding spices, it disperses well, behaves predictably and gives a beautiful color that holds through the curing process. 

Recipe inspiration

Castile soap has a long history rooted in the Castile region of Spain where olive oil was abundant and soap making became a refined craft centuries before the modern cosmetic industry existed. True castile soap is made exclusively with olive oil and not the good quality type, which was traditionally used for cooking. The resulting bar is exceptionally mild, moisturizing, and well suited to sensitive skin. It does take a long time to harden fully so patience is a requirement. Paired with lavender essential oils and lavender buds it's about as close to a timeless soap as a maker can get. 

This recipe makes a 1 pound batch which is exactly four to six bars of soap. Please make sure that you are aware of all the safety measures that you have to take when handling the lye and making soap. Lye is a caustic chemical and can cause skin burns if used improperly. See the following link for all the precautions, details and necessary equipment: https://lovelygreens.com/natural-soapmaking-for-beginners-2/#h-making-soap-safety

(The following recipe is based on the recipe by Tanya Anderson of Lovely Greens, lovelygreens.com)

For this recipe you will need:

• A digital kitchen scale
• Digital thermometer
• Immersion blender/stick blender
• Medium sized stainless steel pot or glass jug
• Bowl for measuring liquid oils
• Silicone spatula
• Soap mold, a 6-cavity mold works nice here, but a small 6inx6in (or similar) box lined with freezer paper will work in a pinch
• Protective goggles
• Gloves and longsleeves

Always make sure to work in a well ventilated area.

Ingredients

Lye water

• 2.05 oz sodium hydroxide 58 g
• 3.67 oz distilled water 104 g
• 1 tsp sodium lactate Optional / See notes below on powder vs liquid
• 16.01 oz extra virgin olive oil 454 g

After Trace

• 0.49 oz lavender essential oil (Optional) / 14 g / 3 tsp
• 1 tsp lightly ground dried lavender buds
• Instructions

Prepare your work station

• Cold-process soapmaking is chemistry, and this recipe uses lye. Lye is a caustic substance that is completely neutralized in the soapmaking process, but it can be harmful if not handled correctly. Please read this soap making safety guidance before proceeding.
• Prepare your workstation with your tools and equipment, and have your mold at the ready. Put on rubber gloves, eye protection, and an apron. Carefully pre-measure the ingredients. The olive oil can go in a small stainless steel pan, the water into a heat-proof jug, and the lye in another container. If you're using it, pre-measure the essential oil into its own small dish or ramekin.
• Although listed as 'optional', sodium lactate is useful in hardening all soap recipes, especially softer soap like this castile soap recipe. It's available as a powder or in liquid form and if you're using the liquid form, you'll need one teaspoon of it. If you're using the powder form, use only half a teaspoon and dilute it in one Tablespoon of the water amount you've measured for the lye. Do this before you begin, and mix the powder and water into its own small dish.

Make the Lye Solution

• Make your lye solution in a well-ventilated area, preferably outdoors, by an open window, or under a kitchen extractor that ventilates to the outdoors.
• With your goggles and gloves on, pour the lye onto the water and stir it in. Keep your face away from the steam that comes up and be prepared for the water to get very hot. Stir until the lye is completely dissolved and then set the jug in a basin of water to cool down. You want it to cool to 100°F / 38°C and can begin warming the olive oil as it cools.
• Add the sodium lactate to the lye solution after it's cooled below 130°F / 54°C

Warm the olive oil

• Warm the olive oil in its pan on low until it reaches about 100°F / 38°C. When both the oil and the lye solution are within about five degrees of one another, it's time to mix. Take your pan off the heat and proceed to the next step.

Stick blending to Trace

• Pour the lye solution through a fine-mesh strainer and into the olive oil in the pan. Stir it together and then use an immersion blender (stick blender) to bring it to 'trace'. Trace is when the soap begins thickening up to a warm and thin custard-like consistency.
• Using the stick blender to emulsify small batches of soap can be a little more tricky than larger batches. I recommend that you first dip your immersion blender into the pan and with it turned off, stir the mixture. Next, bring it to the center of the pan, and with both your hands, hold it on the bottom of the pan and blitz it for just a couple seconds. Turn it off and stir the soap batter, using the blender as a spoon. Repeat until the mixture thickens up to 'Trace'.
• You've hit 'Trace' when you can drizzle some of the soap batter onto the surface of your soap and it leaves a trail. I prefer working at a very light trace since it settles nicely into molds. A thicker traced soap can literally be spooned up and plopped into containers. If you're a beginner, aim for somewhere in the middle.
• Just to clarify, in small batches of soap I advise that the immersion blender is not moving while you have it turned on. Hold it down against the bottom of the pan and turn on to pulse. Only stir when the device is off, as stirring while it is on will create air bubbles and kick up caustic soap batter.

Molding and Curing

• When your soap is at trace, stir in the essential oil if you're using it (here's further information on other essential oils to use) and then pour the soap batter into molds. Leave uncovered and at room temperature or pop it in the fridge overnight if you wish. Leave the soap in the molds for at least 48 hours if not up to seven days. Handmade Castile soap can take time to firm up. If in doubt, just leave it a bit longer.
• When the soap has hardened, pop it out of the molds and cure it. Space the bars out on wax paper / grease-proof paper someplace airy, dim, and at room temperature. This will allow the water that's left in the bars to gently evaporate out. There's detailed information on how to cure and store soap in this piece.
• Technically, this castile soap recipe can be used after four weeks' cure time. However, pure olive oil soap can have weak lather and cleansing properties when used young so it's better to cure soap bars for several months and even up to an entire year before using it! It's a long time to wait but you'll be amazed at how much the soap improves over time.
• Once made, your castile soap will have a shelf-life of up to two years. Check the oil bottle that you're using though -- the best-by date on the olive oil bottle is the best-by date of your soap. If your handmade soap is destined as gifts, check out these eco-friendly soap packaging ideas here. 

Fun Fact:

Cold process soap is one of the oldest methods of soap making. It dates back to 2800 BCE in ancient Babylon. The chemical process behind cold process soap called saponification, wasn’t scientifically understood until 18th century France. Here during the middle ages soap making had become a closely guarded craft in cities like Marseille, France and Castile, Spain. Soap guilds tightly controlled productions and quality giving rise to famous regional soaps such as castile soap. During the WWI and WWII, war time fat rationing almost completely stopped home and artisan soap making which sped up the rise of synthetic detergent bars pushing the traditional cold process soap into a niche craft.